Yesterday, the U.S. Green Building Council revealed this year’s top countries outside the United States that have focused on and successfully implemented sustainable building design practices in their cities. Number one on the list was China—who came in second last year—with a whopping 34.62 million gross square meters (GSM) of certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) space spanning 931 projects. Second place went to Canada with 2,586 LEED certified-projects across a close 34.39 million GSM. India, Brazil, and the Republic of Korea completed the top five, while Taiwan, Germany, Turkey, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates rounded up the list.
With a mission of shrinking the building sector’s global carbon footprint, the USGBC’s LEED certification program, widely used across the world, encourages industry professionals to create efficient built spaces that use less resources such as water and energy, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “As we pursue a worldwide effort to mitigate climate change, LEED and the green building industry have created a path forward for market transformation while changing the way we think about how buildings, communities and cities are planned, constructed, maintained and operated.” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of USGBC in a press release.
A total of 82,000 commercial and 112,000 residential projects around the globe are currently LEED participants, with numbers growing every day.
Check out the USGBC’s infographics below:
Courtesy USGBC
Courtesy USGBC